Happy Birthday- 4 Times When Sonu Nigam Was A Part Of Big Controversies

Singer, actor and anchor, Sonu Nigam celebrates his 45th birthday today. Often regarded as the ‘Modern Rafi’, Sonu is one of the most versatile singers and has lent his voice to films in various languages. As of now he is one of the highest paid Indian singers.

Sonu has experienced several aspects of the entertainment industry. Be it acting in films, judging a show he has ticked them right off his bucket list. He has won several accolades including the National Award.

Lately he has also been considered as one of the most controversial personalities when it comes to be vocal about his ideologies and opinions on a running issue. From calling the morning azaan as ‘gundagardi’ to criticising self-made god-woman Radhe Maa over short clothes, we look at some of the moments Sonu had a brush with controversy.

* Azaaan

Sonu Nigam courted controversy when he posted a 2-minute video, presumably from his house, in which azaan can be heard. He had tweeted: “God bless everyone. I’m not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the Azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India.” He added, “And by the way Mohammed did not have electricity when he made Islam. Why do I have to have this cacophony after Edison? I don’t believe in any temple or Gurudwara using electricity to wake up people who don’t follow the religion. Why then? Honest? True?. Gundagardi hai bus.”

The video was possibly in response to all those who questioned if he could even hear the sounds of the Muslim call to prayer from his home, but after this response he received some serious backlash.

* Radhe Maa

This was during the time when self-made god-woman Radhe Maa’s video of dancing on a Bollywood song went viral. While the entire controversy was taking its own route, Sonu delved into the issue by putting out a series of tweets suggesting that obscenity charges against her smacked of gender bias.

“Just my 2 pence. Kaali Maa is depicted in lesser clothes than Radhey Maa. Interesting that this country wants to sue a woman for her clothes,” Nigam tweeted.

The second one said “Men Saadhus can walk naked. Dance embarrassingly, but it takes a rape charge to put them behind bars. So much for Gender equality?”

* Aamir Khan Intolerance

In 2015, Khan had invited controversy for expressing his fears about living in India. He had also expressed his wife Kiran’s suggestion of moving out, inviting massive criticism and backlash. Aamir received a lot of flak for this statement. Sonu on the contrary supported Aamir and took the share of this hatred. He tweeted, “Everyone has d right to an opinion, except a celebrity. And that’s not my OPINION by the way, cuz I’m not supposed to have one. Paradox.”

* Jet Airways entertainment

Sonu was on a flight from Jodhpur to Mumbai when fellow passengers asked him to perform. The artist obliged and soon videos of Nigam singing ‘Do pal ka khwabon ka karvaan’ from Veer Zaara and ‘Panchhi nadiya’ from Refugee were over the flight’s intercom for his fellow passengers went viral on social media.

Though it made a lot of people happy, authorities weren’t amused by the act. Jet Airways issued a statement on Twitter saying it suspended all cabin crew of a flight and is enforcing corrective measures and disciplinary actions.